LAPT6 Chile: The small world of Leonardo Martins

by Dave Behr on March 14, 2013 9:53 AM

As long as I'm prattling on about the table draw...

Last night after Day 1a play concluded, I went to the center bar in the Casino Municipal with a few co-workers to grab an adult beverage. We ran into some poker players, as you might expect. My colleague Sergio introduced me to one of the Brazilians who had beaten us to the punch, Leonardo Martins. Martins is the reigning Brazilian Series of Poker Player of the Year and it wasn't even close. In 2012, Martins made two BSOP Main Event final tables, three side event final tables and nabbed a super turbo rebuy event win to rack up 2,430 POTY points. The next closest players had 1,845, 1,752 and 1,718, respectively.

Leonardo Martins with some of his BSOP POTY prizes

We made acquaintances. I related a story about a war of words on Facebook between Latin American pro Bolivar Palacios and an American pro who currently floats around Colombia, Carter Gill. Gill has a reputation as a bit of a rabble-rouser. While some of that reputation is surely self-created, I've seen the man in action often enough to know that at least some of the reputation is deserved.

Regardless, after explaining to Martins who Gill is, we all had a good chuckle at his Facebook antics and his ability to provoke other and get their backs up. Some more conversation followed before we finished our beers and went home.

Martins is playing today. He's seated at Table 17, Seat 1. Twice he opened pots pre-flop and the player to his left flatted the raise. Martins won both pots. The third time Martins opened pre-flop, the player to his left said in English, "I've got you figured out now."

Martins called Sergio over and asked him, "Who's this guy to my left?"